The Rhino

I get some of my most curious ideas from Maria Popova. She publishes weekly. This is hers from today. Very well read. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGwJmMQlCJVcltDDQlvJLlTzKdG

                    The Rhino

           I was wondering when
           the rhino would arrive.
             It’s that time of year.
        The old guava plantation
                had a huge crop
       fermenting on the ground.
       They put a fence around it
  but you know rhinos and fences.

          Some have said to me,
     “Can’t you reason with him?”
       and here, I think, we have
     differing ideas about rhinos.
         Mine is not reasonable-
           very little time spent
                 in hammocks
    -although a beguiling image-
   or comparative literature class.

           When mine is nearby,
                a triage occurs.
     How close is he, how drunk?
      How reliable is my source?
        Are my loved ones safe?

    And when the knock comes,
             it arrives at the tip
            of a very large horn,
            to say nothing about
              the following mass.

  Soon thereafter, my door jamb
        undergoes great stress,
       things become unhinged,
      my most secure deadbolts
            forgo their one job.

         Now he’s in my kitchen
              tipsy and leaning.
           With the merest nod 
            he can upset many
    tastefully placed collectibles.
     Mine is an orderly existence,
        gained through a lifetime.
        I have no room for a rhino.